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Tutorial

Note: This tutorial was created for the personal computer (PC) version of Life Expectancy 1.0. The PC version has a different interface than the web version. Thus, the illustrations and text here are not identical to the web-based version you are currently using.

Basics

  1. Required data are Name, Age, and Sex. These three form a "profile."
  2. At any time you may open a previous profile or create a new profile by going to the Name category.

Entering Risk Factors

  1. Use the Demographics, Lifestyle and Diseases & Conditions folders.
  2. Click on folders [left panel] to open them. Click again to close them.
  3. Click on any item within a folder to see either subfolders or risk factors.
  4. Click on risk factors to see a description of the item and its levels [on the right panel].
  5. Click in the check-boxes on the right panel to select a risk factor. Click again in the box to remove the risk factor or change the level.
  6. When done selecting risk factors, click "Calculate" [button on lower left] to obtain the life table (with life expectancy).

Example

Mr. John Doe is a 50 year-old white American. He is seriously overweight, being 5 ft. 7 inches tall and 200 pounds. He also suffers from emphysema, which may have been caused by his smoking and is no doubt aggravated by it.

  1. You might want to start with a "baseline" run, with just his age and sex. To do this:
  1. Click on the "Name" item (upper left corner of the screen)




  2. Click on "New Profile"




  3. Enter the name "Mr. John Doe" in the small box




  4. Click on the "Age" item (upper left)




  5. Enter 50 for age.




  6. Click on "Sex."




  7. Click on "Male."




  8. Click the "Calculate" button.




  9. What you'll see next is:




  10. The life expectancy at age 50 is 27.4 additional years. This number is shown in the age 50 row and the e(x) column.
  11. More information about the output is available in the section entitled The Life Table.
  12. The output file you see is using the program Notepad. You can PRINT this output by clicking on the File button [upper left corner of the Notepad screen], and then Print. The file is saved electronically to your hard drive in the directory c:\temp, as shown on the top line of the output file.
  1. Now you want to run the analysis taking account Mr. Doe's ethnicity, weight, smoking, and emphysema.
  1. If you're still using the software, just go back to the screen (by either clicking on the screen or toolbar icon). If not, start the software again and select the existing profile "Mr. John Doe" from the Name category.
  2. In "Demographics" click on "Race" then select "White" in the check box on the right of the screen.
  3. Ignore "Education" (assuming that we don't know Mr. Doe's educational level or don't want to factor it in).
  4. Enter his Height (5 feet 7 inches) and Weight (200 pounds).
  5. Now click on "Smoking" in the "Lifestyle" group. Select "Current Smoker".
  6. Emphysema is in "Diseases & Conditions." To find it you can either:
    1. Click on the yellow folder "Diseases of the Respiratory System (460-519)". Then Click on "Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases and Allied Conditions (490-496)", then on "Emphysema (492)". [Note: 492 is the code for the disease in the International Classification of Diseases.], or
    2. Type "emphysema" in the Search box [lower left of the screen], and click "Search." The program highlights "Emphysema (492)."
  7. To indicate that Mr. Doe has emphysema click the "Yes" box that appears on the right side of the screen.
  8. Now click "Calculate" again.
  9. Notice that the addition of Mr. Doe's various risk factors has reduced his life expectancy from 27.4 to 19.0.
  10. You may want to print a copy of this. Of course, you always have an electronic copy on your hard drive in c:\temp.
  1. Finally, you may think that we've double counted smoking, because many people with emphysema are smokers. To remove smoking from the list of conditions:
  1. Go back to "Lifestyle" and select "Smoking"
  2. Click on the "Current Smoker" box on the right panel to remove the check mark. Mr. Doe is now considered "Smoking Not Specified."
  3. Click "Calculate." You'll see that the life expectancy has increased to 22.1.
  4. It may be reasonable to use the two life expectancy estimates 19.0 (with both smoking and emphysema) and 22.1 (emphysema only) to bracket Mr. Doe's true life expectancy.